{Fighting the Water + Scanning Slides}

• On Friday we drove to Atlanta, early morning in heavy rain... Luckily on the way home it only was drizzling. 
• Saturday was my day for cooking a dinner for 8 people, at our home. You did see some pictures from the table setting earlier this week. 
• While entertaining our guests, husband Pieter went downstairs twice for emptying the full, 6 gallons, wet vac in his work  shop. Water was seeping in from the outside wall, where our gutters could not hold all the rain water, neither were the pipes big enough for transporting it away from the house. Maybe some burrow from a chipmunk; who knows why and how; but it found its way inside. 
• No damage, nothing as we have all tile floors. Great thing was that we have those TRINITY EcoStorage™ NSF 6-Tier Wire Shelving Racks on wheels from Costco, so we could easily wheel them off! Imagine having fixed shelves... But it is quite a challenge that Water Control!
• After serving dessert to our guests, I did scoot downstairs to empty the big bucket and to mop up some water. 
• But we had no idea it would worsen over night. It was nearly impossible to keep up with it and we could not go to sleep. 
• Pieter did lie on the bed a couple of times to stretch his back and during the in-between time, I sat at my old laptop + Epson scanner (my second) for scanning our slides. In the office upstairs I keep another Epson scanner for non-slide scanning jobs. Archiving everything...

On the left is the opening for pushing strips of negatives inside...

• Got a lot of slides done that way, because it did not stay with only one night. In fact, on Thursday night we had everything dry and could sleep in one stretch through the night without any bucket-emptying duty.
• But kudos to the inventors of those wet vacs or shop vacs. Ha-ha, shop vac it was, as it worked for us in Pieter's work shop! 

• This one, our second, came from The Home Depot and holds 6 gallons or 22.7 liter.
• It takes some muscle power for lifting them, all night long = divided by two humans!
• Also wringing out those floor cloths takes some energy...

• Soaking up some water with old raggedy floor cloths... called 'DWEILEN' in Dutch.

• This kind of work did ask for some 'Popeye' food so I sautéed some baby spinach with garlic to eat with scrambled egg, made from egg beaters. 
• That makes for a yummy and healthy heart meal! Read about how to on my FB Page: facebook.com/MariettesBaktoBasics

• Pieter got smarter as he opened up the wall, so he could attach the hose right there to suck the water up.
• He left his knee pads still on the floor...
• The noise of this 6 gallons shop vac changes when it's full, so next door in the Rose Suite's living room, I got up from my slide scanning job and took the lid off in order to empty it out.

• 6 gallons shop vac - wet/dry utility vac
• It served us very well!

• My hands sure didn't look that happy after wringing out floor cloths that many times...
• I never wear any gloves; just use my bare hands.

• My left hand with the Dupuytren's Contracture after one year...
• Still functionable and even able to perform heavy duty.

• Did any of you have to fight some water?
• We're lucky with no damage, except that the wool/silk rug in the Rose Suite living room got wet on one side, earlier on February 12 on my Mom's birthday when we also had to fight the water.
• I really feel for all those that lost valuables such as photos or whatsoever due to real flooding!

As Pieter's Dad always used to say: 'Water is like Money; there is Enough of Both but it only is Poorly Distributed...'

Related links:
{Table Setting for Friends} | previous post by me
{Our Wild Creek} | previous post by me
{Our Rose Suite Work Shop & Mariette's Back to Basics Shipping Center} | previous post by me
{My Hand and Dupuytren's Contracture} | previous post by me